Spring is in the air!
From guys catching black drum in the surf, to the local gill netters catching loads of bunker in the back bays, the waters in the Mid-Atlantic are showing signs of life! There have been loads of gannets, seagulls, and even Brown Pelicans they’re all feasting on bait fish just off the beach and around the inlet. Striper are also making there way into the back bays and up along the coast as the water temps continue to rise, with Ocean temps between 47-50 degrees and the back bays and flats reaching as high as 60, there are quite a few species anglers will be able to target. We’ve seen a good amount of tautog being caught inshore around the inlet, even a few keepers in the mix, shrimp seems to work good this time of year, and of course sand fleas and green crabs will get eaten too. Surf fishermen have been waiting all winter for the annual spring run of black drum and it looks like they’re finally here, we’ve seen dozen’s of pictures and reports of guys holding multiple big black drum, some reaching the 40-50” mark! Surf fishing isn’t my expertise however I’ve always done well with sand fleas for the black drum, the hard part is finding them but if you can dig some up or get your hands on em, the drum seem to love em! As for the striped bass, good structure with good moving water seems to be holding the bigger schools of fish, local bridges like Route 90, Verrazano and even Route 50 can all be productive this time of year. If you can’t get to man made structure, look for natural structure, deep holes, ledges, marsh points, can all hold fish and be productive in the spring. A jig head and a paddle tail is one of our favorite lures for any species but in the spring the X-Rap can also be irresistible to a striper! Now for all you Tuna Junkies who can’t wait to get back out in the ocean and chasing birds looking for a bite, if you’ve been following along on our YouTube or with our Wednesday night livestreams you know we’ve been keeping an eye on the Gulf Stream as well as the inshore temps, and looking at this years temps and trends compared to last year and the year before, and from the looks of it, we could be in for a killer summer season! As most of you know last summer the tuna bite was dismal compared to years past, the guys in Jersey got all the good water, and it just seemed like majority of the water holding bait and life was well north of our Mid-Atlantic canyons, we would get an eddy or a little filament of water here and there that would slide down the 100 line into our canyons and hold a few fish, but overall a slower tuna bite than usual. With the way the Labrador current is currently pushing down south against the Gulf Stream it is looking like we could have a lot of that good Gulf Stream water staying further to the south and generating fresh eddy’s and filaments that will spill right into our canyons as they break off the gulf stream. I’m sure Jersey will still get some good water as well and we’re still a solid month out, these are just predictions at the end of the day, but it is looking promising! The Bluefin should also begin migrating back up the coast as well, typically in the spring they are difficult to target and don’t seem to feed as much as they do in the winter, however that doesn’t mean its impossible to catch one! Few guys are still catching down in OBX and VA Beach but their season is coming to an end, Jeff and I think they tend to stay a bit further offshore on their way back north out closer to the 100 line and canyons and they usually don’t come as close inshore, the water temps are obviously warmer out there but for us a big part of the whole allure of the Bluefin fishery is catching them close to the beach or not to far offshore, so we’ll see what April’s wind and weather has in store for us, and keep a close eye on the ocean temps and Gulf Stream and we will begin to update the reports more and more frequently as we come into the peak fishing season!! We are so pumped and excited for this year and we hope you all are too!!
